The new issue of Newport Review is now live, and it’s amazing.The Spring 2012 issue features the dreamlike, mythical animal art of Nakisha Elsje VanderHoeven, the winners of our 2011 Flash Fiction Contest, as selected by guest judge Meg Pokrass, a new Poetry in Translation section chosen by poetry editor John Landry, and some of the strongest and most memorable fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction we have published so far.

Take a look at newportreview.org, and look for news about upcoming readings and writing workshops sponsored by Newport Review. If you would like to support our continued publication, writing workshops and reading event, please make a donation to the magazine. We appreciate contributions in any amount.

Newport Review is a nonprofit, independent online journal of fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction and visual art. Publication of Newport Review is is made possible in part by a grant from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, through an appropriation by the Rhode Island General Assembly and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Dates: April 5 - May 10, 2012

Place: William Hall Library, Cranston, RI

Looking for a new, creative approach to your writing? Try this free, 6-week workshop sponsored by the Newport Review (a RISCA-supported arts organization) and the Cranston Public Library. This workshop will use the mythic archetypes as inspiration for writing exercises. Each week we will review two archetypes and do two writing exercises. We will end with sharing and discussion. Participation is limited to 14 members.

Cranston-based psychotherapist, blogger and fiction writer Kiersten Marek will lead the workshop. She has written fiction for print and online publications and has been blogging at Kmareka.com for a growing audience since 2002. Kiersten has been a member of the advisory board of Newport Review since 2007 and has also served as fiction editor. 

This workshop is made possible in part by a grant from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, through an appropriation by the Rhode Island General Assembly and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

First, on Saturday, March 24, Newport Review fiction editors Susan Hradil and Kathryn Kulpa, along with poets Kara Provost and Alexandra Van de Kamp, both published in past issues of Newport Review, will take part in “An Afternoon of Readings with Rhode Island Poets and Writers” at historic Linden Place in Bristol, Rhode Island.

This event is sponsored by the Bristol Art Museum and will also feature Rhode Island poet and essayist Kim Baker. The reading is free and open to all.

Date: Saturday, March 24
Time: 3 - 5 p.m.
Place: Linden Place, 500 Hope Street, Bristol, RI
Phone: 401-253-0390 (Linden Place); 401-253-2250 (Bristol Art Museum)

Next, in April, we will begin our public library writing workshop series with free workshops at the Cranston Public Library and Davisville Free Library. These programs are made possible by support from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts. We will post more details soon!

Because the overall quality of entries was so high, we had to make some difficult decisions, and so we are publishing a complete list of stories that made it to the final round of judging.

Thank you to our wonderful guest judge, fiction writer Meg Pokrass, and to all the Newport Review editors who put in extra time reading for this contest, especially Mary Callahan, Audrey Friedman, and Susan Hradil, and our new editors, Marie Esposito and Marybeth Rua-Larsen. Winning stories will be published in the Winter 2012 issue of Newport Review.

Our guest judge, flash fiction writer extraordinaire Meg Pokrass (Damn Sure Right, Press 53) has selected the first, second and third prize winners in a very close competition. The overall quality of this year’s work was probably the best we have ever received, making choosing only a few stories even harder. We are publishing a complete list of our prize winners and finalists below, and we thank all the talented writers who sent their work to Newport Review.

Winning Stories Chosen by Meg Pokrass

First Prize, $250:             “Necrotic,” Elise Blackwell

Second Prize, $150:         “Group,” Iman Carol Fears

Third Prize, $100: “Once We Left Tampa,” Sophie Rosenblum

Honorable Mention:

“Lapse,” Katherine Davis
“Ash,” Matthew Di Paoli
“Home Free,” Gary V. Powell
“Miami Cafe,” Jeffrey Schneider

Finalists:

“Earthward,” Henry Alley

“La Donna della Finestra,” Mary Byrne

“Bounce,” Jackson Connor

“She Knows More Than I Know,” Wayne Cresser

“Seven Eight Nine,” Elisabeth Dahl

“Calypso Contemplates Odysseus,” Andrea Hahn

“Penance,” Becky Haynes

“London, Christmas 1987,” Sandra Jensen

“Ira,” April Johnston

“Latin Touch,” John Kotula

“Feral” and “Neroli,” W. F. Lantry

“Sandwich Generation,” Ruth Lehrer

“Almost Gone,” Joseph Markman

“Birthday” and “Avoidance,” Lisa Nikolidakis

“The Immigrant,” Jeffrey Schneider

“Tenagra,” Catherine Shelton

“Sailing,” Peter Stine

“Mid-Life in London Towers,” John Witt

Congratulations to all our winners and finalists, and thanks again to all the amazing writers who entered their brief, brilliant and bold works into our competition.

Gallery 65 on William Street is hosting a reading by members of  Newport Review, an online journey of writing and art, beginning at 7:00 pm for the October AHA! Night.

AN EVENING In New Bedford WITH  NEWPORT REVIEW will feature poets and writers published in the magazine reading their work. Newport Review publishes established writers as well as those who are publishing their work for the first time. Featured writers include John Landry, a poet laureate of New Bedford; Lisa Borders, whose novel Cloud Cuckoo Land received fiction honors in the Massachusetts Book Awards; Kenneth Schneyer, a 2009 graduate of the Clarion Writers Workshop and member of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America; and Newport Review editor Kathryn Kulpa, a finalist in the Massachusetts Cultural Council artist fellowships. More readers will be announced.

The evening will include an open mic, and new and emerging writers are invited to sign up to share a poem or short fiction selection. Writers planning to read for the open mic should come by the gallery at 6:30 to sign up.

AN EVENING WITH  NEWPORT REVIEW will feature poets and writers published in the magazine reading their work. Newport Review publishes established writers as well as those who are publishing their work for the first time. The evening will include an open mic, and new and emerging writers are invited to sign up to share a poem or short fiction selection.

A reception with the writers and the magazine’s editors will follow.

Featured readers include:
Lori Bradley, artist and writer
Audrey Friedman, poet
Kirsten Hammerstrom, 2009 Newport Review Flash Fiction Contest winner
Bre Kidman, New Voices writer
John Landry, former poet laureate of New Bedford, MA
Kara Provost, poet
Alice Simmons, New Voices poet
Marybeth Rua-Larsen, poet and fiction writer

$500 in Prizes

All Stories Considered for Publication

Guest Judge: Meg Pokrass, author of Damn Sure Right (Press 53, 2011)

Contest Guidelines:

Format: Original, unpublished flash fiction stories, including prose poetry and experimental forms.

Deadline: Opens June 1, 2011, at midnight; Closes October 1, 2011, at 11:59 p.m.

Word Count: Stories up to 1,000 words maximum; no minimum

Entry fee: $8 for one story; 3 for $21

• Writers may submit a total of six entries.
• The contest is open to all writers ages 13 and above, except writers who have close personal affiliations with Newport Review, its editorial staff, contest judges or advisory board. Past contest winners and those who have been published in past issues of Newport Review are eligible to enter.
• Winners will be notified and posted on our blog and web site.
• You can submit through our online submission manager. Choose “contest entry” as the category. Complete guidelines at http://newportreview.org/?contests.html.
• Questions about contest rules (NOT entries) may be addressed to edit (at) newportreview.org.

$500 in prizes, along with publication, will be awarded.

First Prize: $250 and publication in Newport Review

Second Prize: $150 and publication in Newport Review

Third Prize: $100 and publication in Newport Review

Honorable Mention: Publication in Newport Review

Prize-winning stories will be published in the Winter 2012 issue of Newport Review. Other stories may also be considered for publication.

In the next few months, look for more readings, including open mic nights.

 Throughout the next year,  we’ll be hosting free writing workshops at libraries throughout Rhode Island.

In our next issue, we’ll premiere two new features: interviews with independent bookstores about the local literary scene and reviews of books, chapbooks and zines by local writers.

Can you help?

We’re looking for readers and writers to help launch our new features. Tell us about your favorite bookstores and what you’re reading. Let us know about what local writers are publishing. If you’ve read a good book by a writer from RI or southeastern New England, send us your recommendation. Maybe we’ll review it–or maybe we’ll ask you to review it.

We are applying for grant funding for Spring 2011. Given the current state of the Rhode Island budget, our funding is not at all guaranteed–but you can help.

Please make a donation to Newport Review today. It doesn’t have to be a large one. $5 will buy you a large latte drink–or a year’s worth of amazing art, poetry, fiction and memoir. And every contribution from our readers sends the message that the local arts community supports our efforts to bring new and local writing to the global online community.

There are two ways you can make a tax-deductible donation to Newport Review. The easiest is to click on the PayPal link on our home page. Or maybe you prefer to do it old school. We can do that. Just send your check to Newport Review, P.O. Box 336, Barrington, RI 02806. We’ll appreciate your donation, however it gets to us.